Letterboxing

We have been trying our hand at "letterboxing" this summer. Friday was our second time and the kids just love it. For those that don't know...letterboxing is when you find a hidden cache using the clues you can find here.
Some of the clues are more difficult and require hiking, compass reading, etc....We have not done any of those yet but I am interested in some compass reading after being at cub scout camp and learning a little about how to read and use them. Anyway, this photo is of where we found one of our "treasures". We went to a cemetery in Troy, OH and followed the "clues" to get to this huge tree. We had to pull out some huge mushrooms that were disguising the big hole in the base of the tree and inside was the box. None of us wanted to put our hand inside to pull out the box so we used sticks to get the box out.





(Daddo: It looks like they had ham for lunch!?)
Usually there is a stamp inside (rubber type) from the family that hid it. You make the stamp in your book and then put your family stamp in their book. WE don't have a stamp yet but that is a project for another day.

Of Mice and Men? (Boys)

Yesterday Cameron had a friend over and while they were also playing with Bryce, the neighbor boy, they discovered 3 mice in our egress window well. It is not the first time we have found a mouse in the well (Louis used the shovel to let it climb out that time). The boys thought they could do the same.

Fast forward 15-20 minutes later....

I am sitting with my visiting teachers in the family room and look outside to see them put something in the Cool Whip container that had been laying around from the bug collection they were working on the day before. (Whew...long sentence.) Cameron throws a couple of doused cotton balls in and the lid was clamped down. Suspiciously I inquired about what was in the container.

"We caught a mouse!" they said. "It's alive!"
I asked, "Where are the other ones?"
"Oh, they died. They are still in the window well. One of them got a bloody nose and we don't know what happened to the other one."


HMMMMMM..... I thought. More like bludgeoned nose and I can tell exactly what happened to the other one. As for the one that was caught "alive"....that condition doesn't last for long when you are confined in an airtight container with fingernail polish remover-doused cotton balls to breathe.

Hobo's aren't all that bad!

Tonight Cameron wanted to have a fire. Actually it is more like this afternoon Cameron wanted to have a fire. It started around 3:00 when Cameron came inside and informed me that he and his friend had prepared the fire pit with kindling and wood. It was now ready to go. I then informed him that it would have to wait.
Eventually we got around to it and this time Cameron wanted Hobo dinners (I am sure that is so not politically correct but.....oh well!) I tried to talk him out of it because all of my Hobo dinner memories are of charcoal cooked in foil and going to bed hungry! He was insistent.




I must say....I am a pretty good Hobo dinner cooker. These were the best I have ever had. The kids loved them (Erin and Cameron anyway....Makenna is not a meat eater and was eating at a friends house and Allyson was saving room for the S'mores.)

Erins blog

Some of you may be interested to know that Erin now has a blog of her own. She is quite excited about it and it looks like she will be posting often....If you want to check it out click here.

Ready? Aim! Fire!!

After attending his second year of Cub Scout camp Cameron has once again gotten the hankerin' for some shootin'. He earned his patch for bb shooting at the camp by getting enough hits on the target to add up to 35. He was pretty excited. I am excited too that this year it is easier to let him shoot when it is an empty field behind out house.

Things to do on a nice day

This is what Louis spent his day Saturday doing. We have a great friend who works with concrete and is helping us out with a patio. The weather was great for digging which was nice since he had to dig it down about 6 inches. Can you say "sore back"?

I of course helped out as much as I could. I took the kids swimming at the pool. It was a nice day for that too. :) Aren't I thoughtful?

To know me is to love me....??

Allyson has been suffering (since shortly after birth?) with a bad case of 'Daddy's Girl.'

For example, I have been going to work early and getting off early for a couple years now (my own choice--it's amazing how much work I can get done when there are few interruptions!), and so the weekends are Ally's favorite because when she gets up her fave Daddo is home.

According to Cindy, every morning when they go in to get her, her first words--accompanied by an expectant air of great anticipation--are, 'Daddy home? Daddy home?'

If the answer is yes, she beams. If the answer is no, her smile disappears, replaced with an air of dogged resignation.

I should add that 3-day weekends really mess with her mind!

Firebugs

As Cindy was running helter-skelter trying to get ready for her book club soirée, (see the previous post) Cameron was looking yearningly off into the distant waiting for his dear old daddo to come home from work.

The simple reason being that he wanted to make a fire out back while his friend was there and Cindy, being too busy to supervise it, had told him to wait.

When I did arrive home, Cameron informed me that they had already wadded up a bunch of paper and gathered some firewood.

They got such a good fire in the end, that we all cooked hotdogs and then made s'mores. This also helped Cindy out, as the mess was kept to a minimum both inside and out.





(I was waiting for the egg rolls and Chinese cabbage salad leftovers from the party, so I restrained my urge to chomp down on a dog.)

Cameron's friend won the eating contest easily--5 hotdogs on 2 hamburger buns and at least 2 (maybe 3?) s'mores. Allyson also ate 2 hotdogs--uncooked, with ketchup squirts on every bite!

Wives say the darndest things....

Cindy called me at work yesterday and her first utterance was, “So, have you ever seen a chicken running around after its head has been cut off?”

Assuming that one of our more curious-minded kids had asked her about this phenomenon, I replied in the affirmative, that yes, I had seen a headless chicken run down the alley when we butchered some behind our house in Walla Walla as a kid.

“Good.” she replied. “Now keep that mental image and think of me, for I am that chicken.”

Yes, on this day she had friends over for each of the 3 older kids, spent 3 hours in the van doing errands, cleaned the house, and then in the evening she hosted a book club meeting that required quite a bit of prep time in the kitchen. And I am sure that she did many other things as well, which, if you were to ask her, could be related to you in minute detail.

Multitasking beauty, thy name is Cindy.

We always wondered what made Kenner tick!

WARNING: THIS BLOG ENTRY IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART OR THOSE WHO ARE EASILY PRONE TO NAUSEA, VOMITING, OR MENTAL IMAGES BEING SEARED INTO THEIR MINDS LIKE A HOT BRANDING IRON ON RAW LIVER.

ANY FURTHER VIEWING OF THIS BLOG ENTRY IS TAKEN UNDER YOUR OWN RECOGNITION OF THE RISKS INVOLVED, AND THE OWNERS OF THIS BLOG BEAR NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INJURY, MENTAL OR PHYSICAL (E.G., AS YOU TRY TO RUN TO THE NEAREST BARF BAG).

So anyway, as I was downstairs I heard Cindy yelling out for me from the upstairs. I could tell from the thinly veiled frantic tone that it was a 'I found a big spider' or 'I found a big moth' notification.

I trotted up the stairs and found her in the kids' bathroom, where she had been brushing Kenner's hair.

Her lips frozen in a rictus of terror, she pointed to the top of Kenner's head, and said, 'LOOKATTHAT!!!'

What I saw was this....



....a tick who had obviously been having a good feast. (This is the little rascal after removal. It is about 1/2" long (wide??). Though a hungry tick is small and as hard as flint, a well-fed tick is soft and rubbery and looks like it has swallowed an inflatable raft and then pulled the inflation cord.)

I got onto the Internet to find the best way to remove it, then found the tweezers and did the dirty deed. (As soon as I started, Cindy dashed out of the room....At the time I wondered if it was just envy that was making her so green....)

Kenner was a champ as I carefully extracted it along with a nice little chunk of her scalp, and only began crying when we applied some antiseptic.

We are keeping it in a bag ("PUT IT OUT IN THE GARAGE WHERE I CAN’T SEE IT!!" Cindy said...) just in case Kenner comes down with a rash or fever, etc.

On the bright side, at least it wasn't lice!
(Then again, Makenna is now saying that her scalp is itchy....)

The finished product

This is the pillow Cameron made for his teacher for her end-of-the-year gift. He did all the embroidery and I helped with the sewing. He would not tell me what she said about it when he gave it to her, but I am sure she loved it.

DADDO Comment: Could this non-divulged conversation between Cameron and his teacher be considered a variant form of 'pillow-talk'?

Way to go Erin!

About 1 week ago we got a "secret letter" in the mail from Erin's 5th grade teachers.
She was one of 26 students in all of the 5th grade selected to receive a Presidential Academic award. We were there yesterday when it was presented. We are super proud of her. She does not always like school and can become discouraged easily when she is "not getting it." She worked very hard this year and studied hard to get her good grades. She definitely deserved this award. Way to go Erin!

Maybe I need my eyes checked?

I picked up the kids from their last day of school yesterday and after we had been home for only about 5 minutes it was really, really quiet....and this is what I saw....




Ahhhhhhh..........I keep hoping it was not a mirage. If this is a sign of things to come we will have a great summer!

DADDO Comment: Of course, it didn't hurt that it was 90 stinkin' degrees outside with super-high humidity, and thus there was no one who wanted to step outside! That and the fact that they all want to rack up hours in the Summer Reading Program so that they can get the usual prizes.

Connor Prairie

About 1 month ago Cameron's SOAR (gifted program) class took a family trip to IN. We also went on the visit to Connor Prairie. It consists of a number of recreated communities from the early and late 1800s. We had a great time visiting the Indian village, the school house, the pottery shop, blacksmiths, etc., etc. Cameron and Erin both did the tomahawk throw, but neither got it to stick in the log (though Erin hit it smack in the middle).
What made it more unique than other places we have visited like this were the "characters." Everybody who 'worked' in the villages were dressed up in period clothing and also acted a part. They spoke as if they lived in the 1800s and had real lives in the community.
The best part was that we all got along!!! The kids were lots of fun and we enjoyed being together.
DADDO Comment: It goes without saying that the kids loved staying in a hotel with a swimming pool and a large variety of foods in the free breakfast buffet.

Milestones Galore

Wednesday was certainly a day of milestones for the kids in our family.

1. Cameron reached the big 9, and most of his presents were no surprises--not even the undies!



The bike was no surprise either, though he didn't know the exact type of bike he would be getting (then again, neither did Cindy until she found it at Target that day!)....



...and Cam-bone decided to give his old bike to his friend in our old neighborhood who had had his own bike stolen over a year ago. His friend was, well, thrilled (or whatever that word would be in Spanish--'muchos twitterpatamundo?').


2. Cameron graduated to the Bear scout den . In a world of perfect justice, Cindy would've gotten the badge instead.... (Cindy here...I did get a pin!)




3.Erin attended the city-wide Safety Patrol pizza party to celeberate her entire year of service as a crossing guard. She was somewhat disappointed that she didn't win one of the bikes (along with approx. 120 other disappointed kids), but she got over it soon enough.
(Pictures to follow later??)


4. Makenna lost her first tooth, and what a noticeable tooth it was!



It's a good thing, too, as for a couple days she had often bitten down on hard things and bled a lot--or at least cried and moaned a lot!
However, yesterday we found that she was also somewhat of an Indian-giver. She put one of the 2 dollar bills from the tooth fairy back into the special 'tooth pillow' and slid that and an explanatory letter under her pillow in hopes that the tooth fairy would return her tooth to her as a keepsake. (I don't think it worked....)

5. Allyson just got cuter and cuter! She is talking like crazy, and usually making sense. For example, last night we were out running errands, and after Cindy dropped something off she talked with the lady for quite awhile. As she was talking Allyson hollered out from her carseat, 'Hurry up Mommy!'
What's not to love?!

Memorial Weekend

Well, it has been a productive Memorial Day weekend.

On Saturday I put in 4 venetian blinds, one decorative light fixture, and painted 2 of the 3 stairway walls.

On Sunday night I puttered around in the basement, emptying about 8 boxes and neatly rearranging and stacking all the remaining boxes, and ended up with about 3 times the open space than had been there before.

And today I gave myself a haircut, moved the shed onto our property (it had been sitting on a adjoining lot waiting for the sod to get rooted), put the new lawnmower together, did some weed-eating, decluttered the garage, put out a ton of trash, and shop-vac'ed the grill.

Good night!

Cindy Lou Who, who was no more than two....

With her 'top-knot' (or as Ally likes to say, 'Oooh--awesome!':



And with the rubber band removed ('It's hideous!'):

Working Girl!

Our neighbor was going away for a couple days this weekend, and they asked if Erin would feed their dog and goldfish for them.

The neighbor dog, Gus.....



...was very good-natured and fun to be around. She and Cameron and Makenna took him on at least three walks around the neighborhood, and they also kept him busy chasing balls, and now she kinda wants a dog.

I thought that sending her out with the pooper-scooper would cure her of that, but such was not the case--as she scooped up her third pile she said 'I don't really mind doing it.'

Rats! Foiled again!

So I have had to resort to the 'Yeah, that'll be the day' snort-laugh.

Has she been reading Tom Sawyer recently?

Kenner had a neighbor friend over on Saturday, and Erin joined in when they went to the basement. After a couple minutes I heard the girls begging Erin to let them play in her room.

'Hey, I know!' Erin gaily suggested, 'Why don't we go up to my room and clean it!'

The younger girls were ecstatic, and about 10 minutes later I heard Erin telling them, 'Doesn't my room look a lot cleaner now!?'

Sizzlin'!!

Cindy was taking Erin to a birthday sleepover with a friend (by way of Target for a present), and, despite it being less than 60 degrees out and overcast, Erin turned on the air full-blast and set it to the coldest setting.

Cindy leaned over and turned it back down, and said 'Erin! What are you doing!?"

"Mom," she replied, "I am sooo HOT!!! In two different ways!"

Spawning Carp

It's past that time of the year, but since it is now OK to walk on the grass, I went ahead and strung the carp up to swim in the breeze.



The kids love it, and Ally is mesmerized--not only is it fun for her to watch, it is also made up of "silky" material!

Daddy's Little Helpers....

Cameron mowed the front lawn at the old house for the very last time last Tuesday, and then he did the same at the new house on Monday of this week.



Erin was also excited to try out the mower at the new house, and she did about half of the back yard.

I am so happy!

Did I mention I was ecstatic!?

However, this lawnmower was included in the deal for the old house, so I will have to buy another one that is also self-propelled so that Cameron, et. al., can continue to make their daddy giddy with glee!

Hmmm... maybe it is finally time to purchase that hammock....

Forget about Pisces, Capricorn, or Sagittarius....

This is definitely our favorite sign...



Here is a picture of our old house 10 years ago when we bought it.


And here it is when we sold it.



As you might expect, there were even MORE changes to the inside!

Father and Son golfing

Cameron, in his winsome way, has been yammering for weeks about going golfing, so today we hit the nearby par-3 course.

As we went along, I tried to teach him golf etiquette (the last kind of etiquette he has not yet learned to flout with impunity).

For example, after I had made a big divot, he asked why I was putting the sod back in place and stamping on it.

'You see, Cameron,' I gently taught, 'A good golfer tries to leave the course as he found it.'

Puzzled, he queried, 'But you're not a good golfer!'

Obviously he doesn't realize that the word 'good' has many different nuances.

Later on, I waxed philosophic, explaining the yin and yang of golf, commenting on how if I made a bad shot something good could still come of it, then I added, 'I usually don't make very good shots.'

'Yeah,' he chimed in, 'You usually suck!'

Edward Scissorhands?

Last night was the Father and Son campout, and, as usual, Cameron played with fire most of the evening and all the next morning.

His face was pale gray with the smoke (he had no idea), and when we got home I tried to get a picture taken of him, but as soon as he walked in the door, Erin exclaimed, "Cameron! What happened to your face?"

He promptly went into a bathroom and cleaned it up.

Or so he thought....

He now looked like he had applied a heavy layer of black mascara around his eyes.

It was kinda creepy!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a picture of this either.

So this reasonable facsimile thereof will have to do....



Of course, we did learn some things:
1) Dutch oven pear cobbler is heavenly, but blueberry stinks (fortunately we did half-and-half!)
2) Sleeping in the back of a van is MUCH quieter and MUCH warmer than in a tent.
3) Little boys sleep much warmer in the middle of the night when they actually get INTO a sleeping bag rather than just heaping it on top of them! (I traded him my toasty warm one for his cold one at 5:30 AM.

Does not compute! Does not compute!

So this week, Cindy is having the family do kind things for each other in secret, and then leave behind a little laminated picture of a teddy bear.

On Tuesday night as the kids were getting ready for bed, Erin got Makenna to help her clean up the sink area in the the kids' bathroom.

As they were busily putting things away, putting things in order, and wiping the sinks down, Erin excitedly commented, 'This will be our special gift for Mom!' She then propped up the teddy bear on the back of the sinktop.

I kept quiet, but in my mind I was thinking, 'This is you kids' bathroom sink. Why is cleaning up your own messes a present for Mom?'

When I mentioned this to Cindy that night, she snorted and said, 'I know exactly what she meant!'

Love the mud!

This is what happens when you try to ride your bikes through a muddy field.
Your shoes get stuck in the mud and come off....the wheels won't turn anymore and your brother has to come "unstick" your bike after he has gotten his out. Then you get to hose them all down....and no you can't put your bathing suits onl....it is only 54 degrees outside!

Up close and personal with nature

This was the view from our morning room this morning. Cameron was eating his breakfast and started hollering that there was a deer. It had walked across the top of the hill in the back yard and then mosied down, grazing all along the way. Beautiful!


Last night the kids found a bird in our window well. They were playing in the basement and saw it struggling to fly out. We have a robin's nest in the backyard and assume this was one of the babies from there. We assume that because momma and pappa robin were extremely distressed watching baby robin be "stuck" in our window well. They were flitting all around and when the kids went outside to peer down the well they got an earful from momma and poppa. Louis eventually helped the baby get out and hopefully the little bird family found a safe place to stay the night.

Shakespearean it was not....

Erin had a friend over after school yesterday, and a couple hours later they cajoled me into going to the basement to watch a play they had come up with.

The play consisted of play-acting an argument between Erin and her friend.

As I expected, there wasn't a discernable difference between this play-acting and the real thing!

I guess you could say they have 'practiced' quite a bit over the years!

Parental Units--That's all we are!

Being Sunday, I declined Cameron's suggestion to rev up the chainsaw to cut up more 'firewood' for their firepits (see below).

Cameron then scornfully exclaimed, 'I'm hungry! Since you won't get out the chainsaw, why don't you make yourself useful and cut up an apple for me!'

That kid had better watch out, or he'll find himself at the Emergency Room again!

Cliquishness

The 3 older kids are down the basement having their usual fun and fighting, and then it reaches a new level, so I go down to investigate.

I see that Cameron and Makenna have barricaded themselves in under the basement stairs to have their own club.

Then Erin begins complaining to me, 'They won't let me in there because I don't have any stitches!' (Makenna had some stitches on her lip 3 1/2 years ago.)

I just hope they don't start up a 'Non-Daffy Club,' as there would be no members!

A photographic chain of events

1. The kids can't play on the new grass in our yard, so on Saturday they shift operations to the periphery of the yard and then Cameron and Erin decide to create fire-pits.

Erin's is aesthetically pleasing....



Cameron's is more utilitarian....




2. Against Cindy's better judgment, I let Cameron use a hatchet to cut firewood for their firepits.



3. Cameron ends up in the emergency room with a nice gash that requires 4 stitches.




Supplemental Narrative

Much like the Obama campaign, outward appearances can be deceiving. (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

Actually, after using the hatchet for a number of hours, Cameron went to bed Saturday night with nary a mark and with a small grin of self-satisfaction.

At 4:50 AM, we awoke to a big 'THUMP' and then a slight scream, followed by Cameron crying his way into our bedroom cupping his bloody arm.

Cameron had fallen out of his bed and hit the steel mattress supports on the way down. As such he, got his first taste of an Emergency Room.

Sadly, this hasn't slowed him down a bit....

The grass is always greener....

On Thursday I got back from a short business trip to Mexico to find this:



The soddin' sodders had done sodded our yard.

My understanding is that we now have to spend about $1000 in water bills over the next couple months, not to mention non-stop moving of sprinklers, etc., in order to finally enjoy the new lawn.

Cindy and I were up past 11 PM that first night!

Flamingoed

This is what we saw in our front yard when we woke up Wednesday morning.
I guess this means we have officially been welcomed to the neighborhood.

A wolf in sheeps clothing

Sunday afternoon....Allyson is in bed napping.

Makenna: "Mom, Can I go in my room and get 5 pennies."
Mom: "No."
Makenna: "Please. I know just where it is. I'll be really quiet."
Mom: "What do you want it for?"
Makenna: "I want to buy a stick of gum from Cameron."
Dad: "I will let you borrow 5 cents. When Allyson wakes up you can pay me back."
Makenna: "Thanks."


Monday morning....two hour delay for school because of dense fog...kids are playing the the basement...mom cleaning up in the kitchen. Makenna comes running upstairs.

Makenna: "Mom, Can I have a quarter?"
Mom: "No."
Makenna: "Please Mom! I really need one."
Mom: "Why do you "need" a quarter?"
Makenna: "So I can buy a stick of gum from Cameron."
Mom: "How many pieces are you going to buy?"
Makenna: "Just 1."
Mom: "Why do you need a quarter for 1 stick? Yesterday it was only 5 cents?"
Makenna (exasperated): "Cameron said it was on clearance yesterday. Today it is only on sale!"

Erin walks into the kitchen waving around a dollar bill

Mom: "Erin, what are you doing with that dollar?"
Erin: "I am going to buy some gum from Cameron."
Mom: "How many pieces?"
Erin: "4."

Cameron enters with a sheepish little grin on his face. He has definitly swindled his sisters and he knows it. They, of course, are clueless.

I know Cindy likes Elton John's music....

...but this might be going a bit overboard!



(Actually, Ally loves these glasses and puts them on by herself!)

Fishing season arrives....

On Friday night I took Cameron and Kenner to the pond at work to see if anything was biting yet.

Within a couple minutes Cameron had landed the first one.



Then Kenner landed one with some limited help from Daddo (I only baited the hook, put the hook in the water, jerked to hook the bluegill, then let her hold onto the rod for a couple seconds.)

I soon picked up my rod and went off on my own, hoping with a kindly father's hope that this would spur Kenner to try to do more by herself--that she would pull herself up by her bootstraps and be self-sufficient. (That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!)

And it worked!

By the end of the night she had caught two fish, having loaded the hotdog onto the hook, jerked, and brought them in without any help from Daddo. (I use the word 'brought' instead of 'reeled' as they were fishing about 2 feet offshore...)

A budding reader!

Messing up?

Cameron is quickly becoming crazy about doing embroidery. Since I showed him last week he has completed 2 projects. They are not difficult and only use a back stitch but he does them very well.
Makenna has been watching him and for the past week has been begging me to let her do a project too. I needed to buy another hoop since they have taken over mine. I got her a hoop and this afternoon I put her project together and got it ready for her.
After her first two stitches she said she "messed up". She handed me the project and sure enough her thread had come out of the needle. I fixed it and got her started again.
Anther stitch...."I messed up again." I fixed it again and got it started again. Another stitch...."I messed up AGAIN! UGGHHHH!" She handed it to me and the needle and thread were still together.
"How did you mess up Makenna?", I asked.
Her reply..."It keeps ending up on the bottom!"

We both got a good laugh when I explained that it needs to go through the bottom, then it goes through the top, then through the bottom etc. etc...

Now THATS what I call a "GARBAGE" can!

[Posted by Mommo]
Last Saturday I made my trip to Target before it closed to buy the new garbage can I had wanted. I had looked several places, priced them out and thought I was getting a great can for a great price. It is stainless steel with a press down lid instead of a foot pedal. I was so excited for it. We used the can for several days before having to empty it. Many times I commented on how much I loved our new garbage can. I know...it is just a garbage can...but I loved it. I loved it until I had to empty it. The one flaw in design is the inner "lip" that does not raise up when you need to remove the garbage bag. I had been stuffing all I could into the can for days. Finally when I tried to take out the bag I could see there was going to be a problem. The "lip" does not allow the bag to come out without every single thing you put in the can getting stuck on it. By the time I wrestled the bag out I had so many rips and holes in the bag that garbage was spilling out on the floor.
This only happened twice! After the second time I called Target (which is my favorite store) and asked them if I could return a gargabe can I had bought 5 days previously, used since then, no longer had the box for but hated! Their reply....

Yes!!

We are currently using our old can. If you would like to see a photo of our "returned" can so as to know what NOT to buy you will have to check out the post below with photos of our kitchen and look near the end of the counter. (Sorry I didn't get a close up but at the time who knew there would be a reason to!)

Our students are like sauerkraut in our hands!

Yesterday Erin came home with a headache.

After she explained why I certainly understood! Her teacher had shown them some global warming propaganda--including Al Bore--I mean Gore--in his misnomered film, 'An Inconvenient Truth.' Leni Riefenstahl would be proud of him!

I went ahead and clarified a few things for her, such as, yes, there appears to be global warming (even though temps have been stable for the past 10 years) but the jury is still out on whether it is man-made or earth- (or sun-) induced, that the 'Hockey Stick' temperature chart has been pretty much debunked, that Greenland was called Greenland long ago for a reason--and not because the glacial ice was green--that the polar bears are doing fine overall, that Ohio won't be beachfront property anytime soon, and besides, there could be a lot of benefits from a slightly warmer earth.

Then today she came home with another howler. Her teacher had made the comment that Al Gore should have been president--he got more votes than Dubya.

This provided another teaching moment. I told Erin that presidents in the US were not elected by the number of votes, but by electoral college delegates from each state, and that the next time she should make the comment, 'It's a good thing that Gore lost Florida by 500-odd votes--and all hail the electoral college!' (OK, I added the last bit!)

Still, she has great teachers this year, and as long as I can deprogram her, it's good for her to hear many different viewpoints!

Radiance, Thy Name is Cindy

Before my talented nephew Caleb flew off to Hong Kong on his mission, I asked him to try his hand at making a sketch of Cindy and me. He kindly agreed, and I sent him separate photos of each of us to meld together into one.

I later found out that the photo I sent of me didn't have enough contrast for him to pick up all my rugged face contours, and that he was struggling.

Still, when I saw the result I am sure that my reaction was the same as anyone who ever saw Cindy and me together. "Wow! What is a fox like that doing with a balding geriatric-ward wanna-be? He must have a lot of money or something! Maybe it's blackmail!?"

Fortunately, our scanner cannot scan the both of us so I am just posting her result.



Caleb's equally talented mother, my sister, felt the same way about my half of the picture, so she tried us both with watercolors.

The result was basically the same, a rendition that recalls Esmerelda and Quasimodo. As such, again, only the better half is being posted.



In both cases, how I turned out was certainly not due to a lack of talent, as you can see from Cindy's results. I guess I will just have to live with the fact that my rugged handsomeness, as it were, just cannot be captured on paper.

At long last....

We finally took some photos of the new house for the curious-minded:

The rustic front yard:



The morning room:



And Cindy's nirvana:

Held captive by the Amish....

During our moving prep 10 days ago we moved all the dresser drawers from our better furniture to the new house beforehand, and Cindy came in to find Ally in the following predicament.



A genuine Amish prison!

A stitch in time saves contention....

Yesterday while listening to general conference via the Internet, Cindy got Erin started on some cross-stitching to help her pass the time. (There is more than one way for a kid to gain an understanding of the concept of 'eternity' during general conference!)

Cameron, seeing an opportunity to compete, also showed interest in this new craft, and he was also soon busily stitching.

When he came home from school today, though it was sunny and 70 degrees he plunked down on the couch and an hour later he finished:




(Cindy here...It is embroidery--not cross-stitiching. There is a difference. I also think that Cameron was not so interested in competing as he was in doing a craft. He is very competitive but I didn't see it this time. He has a knack for embroidery too. He is already planning his next "bigger" project.)

There's no princess at this house....

At Christmas time Cindy bought me a handy tool carrier.

Aside from showing her love, this was also an effort to prevent fruitless searches and fruitful mutterings as I looked for tools. As she explained it, 'Now you have something to carry the tools you use often. Additionally," she added while smiling quietly to herself, "You don't have to leave tools lying around the house anymore. Once you use it, you can put it right back in your handy-dandy 'tool purse!!."

For some reason she enjoys using the term 'tool purse.' But please note that it outweighs even the heaviest female purse by at least 15 pounds!

Anyway, I told you the above to tell you this....

Erin borrowed a hammer yesterday from my tool purse, and, naturally, she forgot to put it back in. Thus when I was hanging a small wall unit in the downstairs bathroom and I needed a hammer, well, it wasn't there!

Erin looked for it, but to no avail.

However, 10 minutes ago (9:20 PM) she came downstairs and handed me my hammer, relating, 'I found it in my bed. I think I slept with it last night.'

I guess not everyone can have princesses for daughters.

Sigh (of relief!).

Day 6 and Counting

Yes, yes, we know--everyone is clamoring for pics of our new residence of 6 days.

Though we would love to satisfy your desires (lust-filled or otherwise) regarding this matter, the truth is that we haven't taken a single picture of the house--inside or out--all week!

And let me get the usual 20 questions out of the way....

1. Yes, there are a lot of full boxes sitting around the house.
2. No, the only permanent curtains up yet are the ones in the den which we completed about 10 minutes ago.
3. Yes, the kids love the neighborhood--the small park, the quiet lanes that are perfect for bike-riding, and the climbing hill out back.
4. NO! YOU CANNOT WEAR SHOES ON THE CARPET! DID YOU HEAR ME KIDS!??!!
5. Yes, the same goes for any FOOD too!
6. No, the basement isn't full yet.
7. Yes, the kids love to play in the basement--they especially like riding about on their scooters.
8. No, we have not found a home for the empty boxes yet, but we are actively looking.
9. Yes, being outside of town is somewhat inconvenient, but Lowes is only 3 miles away.
10. No, there isn't any sod laid down yet.
11. Yes, even on Day 1 we could park in the garage (thanks to the moving helpers who worked miracles and even offered to move all the food storage to the basement!
12. No, the kids have not changed schools--the big change comes in September.
13. Yes, we have a new email address (floydlc@verizon.net) (though the old one still seems to work).
14. No, we haven't heard any roosters crowing.
15. Yes, the sun does shine directly into the morning room in the mornings--right in Cameron and Allyson's eyes!
16. No, we are still able to get by without cable or satellite--the rabbit ears should last a couple more years!
17. Yes, feel free to come by to visit--we can easily put you to work!
18. No, we have not yet run out of Ben-Gay, but we are pushing major cracks out of each other's backs on a near-daily basis.
19. Yes, this list is getting quite long.
20. No, we have not caught up on our sleep yet!